1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a hand-held clipper for removing entangled fiber strands from the surface of fabrics, and more particularly to such a clipper having a cutting head which is manipulated across the surface of the fabrics with the handle grip thereof held in one hand of the user.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such hand-held clippers have been proposed for cropping the entangled fiber strands or wads thereof undesirably occurring on clothing such as sweaters, socks, tights or the like fabrics. As disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publications No. 55-135097 of 1980 and No. 58-117797 of 1983, the prior clipper includes a cutting head having an outer shearing foil and an inner cutter assembly driven to rotate for shearing the wads of entangled fiber strands entering perforations in the shearing foil. In the prior clippers, the cutting head is mounted at one end of a handle grip to be held by one hand of the user and is enlarged to form therein a head chamber for recovering the clipped fiber strands. Nevertheless, the head chamber is still limited in space and is therefore required to be emptied out frequently. This is inconvenience, and to make the matter worse, the clipped fiber strands stored in an excess amount within the head chamber will entrap the inner cutter assembly to thereby hamper the rotary motion thereof and eventually interrupt the cropping operation. Thus, the prior clipper is unsatisfactory for a continued cropping operation.
To solve this problem, it is first contemplated to provide an additional chute along the length of the handle grip for storing a greater amount of the clipped fiber strands. However, simple addition of the chute to the handle grip would certainly add an extra thickness thereto and therefore narrow the clearance between the cutting surface of the cutting head and the corresponding face of the handle grip or the chute. As the clearance is limited, the fingers of the user's hand grasping the handle grip will interfere with the surface of the fabric across which the cutting head is moved during the cropping operation, thus lowering the handling performance of the clipper. Further, it would be also likely that the added chute obstructs the view of the cutting surface of the cutting head during the cropping operation which should be avoided for giving improved operability to the clipper.